Palm’s and then Hewlett-Packard’s webOS operating system garnered a lot of praise for its design and innovative user interface but now powers some LG televisions after HP decided to dump it and run. Two of the designers that worked on it are now headed to Pebble to help the smartwatch company enhance its own operating system. Itai Vonshak and Liron Damir are joining the company as its new new product and UX lead and design lead respectively.
Both Vonshak and Damir worked with webOS head designer Matias Duarte before the latter left for Google to lead their design efforts. Both moved to LG when HP finally sold webOS and helped bring the interface to LG’s televisions. They will rejoin former webOS team member Henry Levak who also worked on webOS at LG before coming a Product Manager at Pebble.
The recent hirings point to Pebble making improvements to its Pebble OS, likely in preparation for a new generation of smartwatches. Pebble was among the first companies to jump into the smartwatch market but now faces an increasingly crowded and competitive market. It held an 11.4% share of the market in Q1 2014 but that will likely come under increasing pressure from new players like LG, Motorola and Samsung. And then there is the looming shadow of Apple and the oft-rumoured iWatch.
Source : PocketNow